The invention relates to a cleaning instrument for a tooth root canal and also for a tooth interstice, comprising a head portion and, adjacent thereto, a cleaning portion having a shank provided with bristles on its external surface. The invention relates also to a method of producing a cleaning instrument for a tooth root canal, which instrument comprises a head portion and, adjacent thereto, a cleaning portion having a shank the external surface of which is provided with bristles.
Cleaning instruments of that kind are used in the course of dentistry treatments after the root canal of a tooth has been prepared using an appropriate reaming or drilling instrument.
The object of cleaning is to remove, from the tooth, material that, on clearing out, remains behind in the tooth root canal, so that the tooth root canal can subsequently be filled.
In conventional cleaning methods, a rinsing solution intended to take up and remove the remaining material is introduced into the tooth root canal. However, such methods do not ensure that material which has gathered at the end of the root canal, that is to say in the apical region, is also rinsed out from the root canal.
Alternatively or additionally, tooth root canals can be cleaned with rotating, so-called “drilling”, instruments. However, not every tooth root canal is of circular cross-section, so that it is not possible for all regions of the tooth root canal to be cleaned using such instruments.
Brushes in which bristles are bound into wound wires are known for cleaning cavities and drilled holes in teeth. Such brushes are, however, usually too large to be able to clean a tooth root canal. Furthermore, during rotation of the brush, the wound wires can twist open and bristles can come away and remain behind in the root canal.